Sonnet for Ledbury

Last year Robin Hiseman asked me for something from my back catalogue for the Ledbury Carnival https://ledbury-carnival.co.uk/ programme, with its 2024 Golden Jubilee theme of 'Going for gold'. I was able to oblige with 'Bus home from working Sunday', written way back in 2012. I blogged this as the third poem in my post 'Bears and gold', which I put up on the the day of the carnival. 

This year Robin asked again, the 2025 theme being 'Wonders of the world'. I didn't have anything in my back catalogue for that, so I wrote a new one.

SONNET FOR LEDBURY

Wonders of Ledbury. They've printed some --

Ledbury clock tower, Ledbury market hall,

Ledbury viaduct, Ledbury carnival --

stitched to world wonders like Rome's Colosseum.

If wonders come in sevens, Ledbury,

adding St Katherine, Elizabeth

Barrett Browning, John Masefield, in one breath

reaches its quota. It's got seven, see?

But Ledbury doesn't stop counting there.

Its church in Jenkins' England's thousand best,

its annual poem contest and fest,

plus those four cricketers and one darts player

and lots more Wikipedia's noted down.

Wonders of Ledbury. Wonderful town!